Maine Gov. Paul LePage held a rambling, angry press conference Friday morning, addressing the racist statement he made at a town meeting about Maine's drug problem. Here's what he said in that town meeting:
"These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty … these types of guys … they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home. […] Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we have to deal with down the road."
In the press conference, streamed by WCSH6, LePage admitted to "a slip of the tongue," and "one slip-up" when "instead of saying 'Maine women' I said 'white women.'" Furthermore, it's the media’s fault that Maine's problems with domestic violence and drugs aren't being solved because they're "more interested in sound bites" than solving problems. Reporters have to "get your heads out of the sand. Please. Help us."
"If I was perfect I'd be a reporter," he said, "but I have a heart." He's only concerned about the drugs and domestic violence and the media is out to get him, and "if you want to make it racist, go ahead." He also complained that the only reason the "one word" he messed up on ("white" women) was being reported was because a blogger picked it up, and that the rest of the media is "in the pocket of Maine bloggers," who are all "left-leaning."
LePage insists he "never said anything about white or black on traffickers," and that reporters are "reading something into it I didn't say" because he had no idea if the traffickers he commented on—D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty—were "white, black, Asian." He didn't know that, he says, because he doesn't read the newspapers and only gets his reports from Maine law enforcement. He also told the reporter that asking this question about race was "inappropriate."
Bottom line, everything is the bloggers' and the medias' fault and he apologizes to the women of Maine for saying "white" women instead of "Maine" women when talking about them getting knocked up by drug dealers. And he is deeply offended that anyone was offended by his "slip of the tongue.”